Nochmals: Der US-Präsident hat am 2.9.2025 offenbar eine extralegale Hinrichtung von elf Menschen angeordnet und durchführen lassen, schlicht weil er sie des Drogenhandels bezichtigt. Das sollte als eine (weitere) schreckliche Zäsur auf dem Weg der USA in die Autokratie wahrgenommen werden. 1/3

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Dear NYT: "Some legal experts"?! This is the official position of the US Government taken in the Nuremberg trials, that every Naval JAG officer learns in basic training. There is no "alternate view." See In re Großadmiral Karl Dönitz, avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/juddoeni...

Seit 2005 gilt in Berlin das „Neutralitätsgesetz“ – und spätestens seit dem BVerfG-Urteil zu Kopftuchverboten von 2015 widerspricht es der Verfassung. Doch der nun vorliegende Gesetzentwurf würde daran kaum etwas ändern, wie SHINO IBOLD zeigt. verfassungsblog.de/neutralitats...

Sat down with @stevevladeck.bsky.social & @williambaude.bsky.social to talk start of a new SCOTUS term, end of an unprecedented summer on the shadow docket, & 20 years of Chief Justice John Roberts www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

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Young’s opinion, which rules that the Trump admin illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation, is absolutely scathing. “In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police…ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”

The ruling itself is remarkable, but it closes with something I've never seen: a 12-page assessment of Trump himself as an ignorant bully, braggart and threat to free speech and the republic writ-large. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Our little AAUP chapter went 2/2 vs. Trump! Noem and Rubio…misused the sweeping powers of their offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their 1st Am protected political speech. They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizens…

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Michl @fmichl.bsky.social: Bürgerliches Recht und GG, in: Jansen/Lohsse, 125 Jahre BGB (open access), www.mohrsiebeck.com/buch/125-jah..., S. 39 ff. Schöne Studie dazu, dass Zivilrecht und Verfassungsrecht schon *vor* Lüth "aufs Engste miteinander verbunden" waren (41). 1/16

Eine Kriegsführung, die sich über völkerrechtliche Tabus hinwegsetzt, schadet langfristig auch den Israelis.   Die Hybris von Politikern wie Netanjahu, zu glauben, dass 🇮🇱 jemals sicher sein wird, solange es Nachbarn unterdrückt, schadet.   Wenn man solidarisch mit 🇮🇱 ist, dann sollte man das sagen.

Der letzte CDU-OB von Dortmund war übrigens Herbert Scholtissek (1900-1979), von 1951-1967 Richter des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, Ko-Autor des Sondervotums zum Apothekenurteil mit besten Kontakten in die Apothekerszene und erster Kritiker der Drei-Stufen-Theorie (mehr dazu: t1p.de/hn2am; €).

Savage (The Daily, Sept 25) on the (now three) killings: This "is fundamentally different ...". "This is treating people who are civilians, even if they are suspected of being criminals, as if they were combatants and killing them without any kind of due process." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/p...

Evin Dalkilic @evinale.bsky.social: Hochschulen und Bibliotheken "dürfen Diamond-Open-Access-Publikationen" wie den Verfassungsblog @verfassungsblog.de finanzieren. Das Wirtschaftlichkeitsgebot steht nicht entgegen: "Um es kurz zu machen: Es handelt sich um ein Scheinproblem." 1/4

"Trump will be vulnerable." "But the opposition can win only if it stays in the game." "Opposition under competitive authoritarianism can be grueling." But "retreat would be perilous". "When fear, exhaustion, or resignation crowds out ... commitment", authoritarianism "begins to take root". 30/30

"Once key agencies ... have been packed with loyalists, governments can harness them for three antidemocratic ends: investigating and prosecuting rivals [shock and law], co-opting civil society [honey trap], and shielding allies from prosecution [protection racket]." 17/

"Competitive authoritarianism will transform political life in the United States. ... The "cost of public opposition will rise considerably" - "leading many ... to decide that the fight is not worth it". "A failure to resist, however, could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment..." 9/

Steven Levitsky/Lucan A. Way @lucanway.bsky.social with : Democracy "is in greater peril today than at any time in modern U.S. history", heading towards "competitive authoritarianism". It tilts "the playing field", so elections remain competitive, but become "unfair". 1/30

In this week's episode of @strictscrutiny.bsky.social, Professor Kate Shaw (@kateshaw.bsky.social) and her co-hosts take a look at the impact of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, three years into her time on the Supreme Court. https://penncareylaw.news/42N9G7d

But the Fifth Circuit has not carved out an exception for govt workers who are researchers or teachers. It should! But AFAIK as of now in Texas, it is not at all clear that profs at Texas Tech have any 1A rights when they research or teach

You would think this move by Texas Tech would be blatantly unconstitutional bc it intrudes so much on academic freedom, which SCOTUS has insisted is a "special concern of the First Amendment." But you would be wrong 🧵https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/politics/texas-tech-gender.html

The successful public backlash against silencing Jimmy Kimmel contains some big lessons on what works in the face of autocracy, as expert Hardy Merriman explains in this fascinating episode with my co-hosts @janemayer.bsky.social @sbg1.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

"Sein" and "Sollen": Two German words in a public space in Prague remembering the birth place of Hans #Kelsen. Thank you @kemmereralex.bsky.social for a great tour remembering Kelsen and Eric Stein in Prague as part of the @elu-society.bsky.social conference. www.petrdub.cz/works/hans-k...

"Along comes Justice Jackson, who is an expert on the reconstruction amendments, for example. And so if you want to do originalism and the 14th amendment, she's like, you know, I call you and I raise you one. Absolutely. Let's do it." Especially enjoyed the segment with @sifill.bsky.social

As @bojanspaic.bsky.social has said, in legal theory one lives on the "highly recommended" of the Legal Theory Blog. Thanks @lsolum.bsky.social !

I talked with Jeffrey Rosen and Eugene Volokh about the law of jawboning, Brendan Carr's threats against ABC, the Trump admin's threats against universities, and the deep problems created by a public sphere in which the gov pulls so many purse strings. open.spotify.com/episode/1sZo...

in a sane world, this would be an impeachable offense & articles of impeachment would be drawn up tomorrow. just as Jimmy Kimmel’s case wasn’t about Jimmy Kimmel - but about state sanctioned censorship - the Jim Comey case isn’t about Jim Comey. It’s about the rule of law versus authoritarianism.

Ich habe mit Annette Wilmes über mein neues Buch zum BVerfG gesprochen. Hier kann man reinhören: menschen-orte-paragraphen.podigee.io/25-neue-epis...

Tsesis on Originalism and Free Speech Doctrine, buff.ly/3qF1mel - Alexander Tsesis (Florida State University - College of Law) has posted Originalist Framing Of Free Speech Doctrine (University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Volume 173, (forthcoming 2025)) on SSRN.

Finally had a chance to watch this, and it’s very much worth your time if you haven’t - late night tv as a site of popular constitutionalism

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social: Lower Than Cowards - The surrender of America’s elites "All of these powerful people trying to save their own skin have effectively multiplied Trump’s attacks on constitutional government, by enhancing a false sense of inevitability and invincibility." 1/10

This seems sadly right and makes one wonder how much success in our societies just reflects opportunism: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Robert Post (21 Sept.) @verfassungsblog.de: Falling Far and Fast Teaching "First Amendment law for more than forty years", "this week, for the first time, I have become frightened that freedom of speech in America might actually be endangered". "Authoritarianism... looms on our horizon." 1/23

Jamelle Bouie: Trump’s Dream of Infinite Presidential Power "A sovereign president is, for all intents and purposes, a king. And the simple fact is that the American Constitution does not create, or permit, a king." (Gift Link 🎁) 1/12 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

Trump’s Dream of Infinite Presidential Power www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

On this day in 1957, U.S. Army troops escorted the Little Rock Nine to Central High School in Arkansas. Less well known—in August 1958 all the city's high schools were closed for a year to resist integration. Students learned through televised lessons, as shown in these photos.

This is the perfect encapsulation of Trumpism -- because of its obsession with imagery, the White House crew caused a problem but blamed it on other people, leading to MAGA making threats against the United Nations for their own screw up

Bernick on Antiabortion Constitutionalism, buff.ly/5ex41br - Evan D. Bernick (Northern Illinois University - College of Law) has posted Text, Violence, and the Implausibility of Antiabortion Constitutionalism (UC Davis Law Review Online, 2025) on SSRN.

Morgen beginnt die Tagung der INTERNATIONALEN VEREINIGUNG FÜR RECHTSPHILOSOPHIE (IVR) in Münster. Thema: Partikulär oder universell? Generell oder kontextuell? Wer mehr wissen will, kann sich gern auf dem Flyer über die Panel informieren. Interessierte sind herzlich eingeladen. @uni-muenster.de

To kick off a series on @lpeblog.bsky.social exploring the perverse use of antidiscrimination law by the Trump admin, I wrote about the radical interpretation the admin has adopted of Title VI and what it means for TItle VI's past & future. lpeproject.org/blog/title-v...

Jeffrey Pojanowski, Rethinking Legislative Intent, @jotwell.bsky.social (reviewing Stephanie Collins & David Tan, Legislative Intent and Agency, 44 Oxford J. Legal Stud. 231 (2024) "Intentionalism in contemporary legal interpretation is unloved, at least in my United States. " 1/14

This piece by Robert Post is excellent. I especially like that he traces the Trump Administration's authoritarian trampling on the First Amendment to, in part, the Roberts Court's extreme unitary executive theory. verfassungsblog.de/turn-against...

An important piece.

From our foremost theorist of free speech and academic freedom: "My country waits apprehensively to learn whether the pinnacle of its federal judiciary...will somehow remember its obligation to the rule of law...That this should even be a question illustrates how far and how fast we have fallen."

A lot smarter than the centrists vs leftists chatter: data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-democr...

"Falling Far and Fast" Yale Law’s ROBERT POST — one of the nation’s foremost experts on freedom of speech — has been teaching First Amendment law for more than 40 years. For the first time, he fears that freedom of speech in America is truly endangered. verfassungsblog.de/turn-against...

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Gessen: "The indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show signaled just such a shift in landscape. The news tells us that we are moving from one country to a different, autocratic one. The television shows us: This country looks different, sounds different and feels different..."